about iPhoneagraphy

Today, I thought I'd write about one of my more recent hobbies. (Or Aaron might call it an addiction.)

I love taking pictures with my iPhone.

Me with my iPhone 4s and it's 8 megapixel camera.

Now, you hand me a camera, and I'll hand it right back. I have no idea how to work a camera, let alone one of those fancy cameras that people have.

But, I have schooled myself in the art of taking pretty iPhone pictures in the past year or so.

One way I did this was participating in FATMUMSLIM's Photo a Day Challenge for a whole year. Chantelle, who is the author of the Photo a Day challenge, often writes blog posts on iPhoneagraphy. She is where I got a lot of my limited knowledge.

I also love photo editing apps.

Seriously, I'm no photographer. At all. But, with the right filter, any picture can look way better.

Some of my favorite photography apps, in no particular order, are:

1. VSCO Cam:

It was recently re-released as a free app. I was only a tiny bit sad that I had forked over the $.99 months ago. It's way better now. And I may or may not have splurged for the bundle of all of their cool filters...   Anyway. Here's a photo I took and then edited with VSCO Cam.

2. AfterLight:

What I like about AfterLight is they have a lot of cool frames and textures. Both of these pictures were edited and framed with AfterLight.

3. Camera+:

Camera+ is another editing app that has some cool pre-set effects that I like. I mainly use it for the "Toy Camera" and "HDR" effects. Here's what they do:

4. Over:

Over was recently one of the Starbuck's Apps of the Week. But, if you weren't lucky enough to pick that up, I think it's $.99 in the App Store. Over lets you add text to your photos. For example...

5. PicFrame:

PicFrame lets you put multiple photos into one collage. It lets you add up to nine or ten, I think. It also has some frames, and you can add text.

6. Whitagram:

Whitagram is basically only useful if you are posting to Instagram (we will get to Instagram in a minute). If you know Instagram, you know the photos you post must be square. Well, if you don't want to crop your pretty photo into a square, Whitagram is your ticket. 

7. A Beautiful Mess:

A Beautiful Mess might just be the most adorable photo app out there. I. Love. It. I try not to be annoying and use it all the time. Or else I totally would. It has the cutest borders, doodles, phrases, and fonts to add over your photos. It's $.99 in the App Store.

8. Instagram:

Obviously. Oh, Instagram. What do I say? Basically all of the photos I already posted were then shared, and perhaps even edited further, with Instagram. Instagram is the reason I got all of those other apps. It's the place to share your "masterpieces" (I use that term very loosely). I love, love, love Instagram. If I had to choose between Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, Instagram would win. Always.

I'll stop with eight. In case you're wondering, no, I don't use every app every time I'm editing a picture. I normally stick with one or two at a time! A lot of them do very similar things, so you can pick and choose. I'd be happy to answer any questions!

And, if you don't already, follow me on Instagram: @whitneylbauer. I'd love to follow you back!

about #FMSphotoaday

Back in February, my friend Ashley, who I have known since the 2nd grade, started doing this "photo-a-day" thing that she got from a blog written by a lady in Australia. 

It was super cute. So, in March, I started doing it. Every month, there is a new list of "prompts," one for each day of the month. They are completely random (i.e. "friend," "spoon," "what you ate," etc.).

You kind of interpret them however you want, take a photo with your phone, add a cool filter with Instagram if you so choose, and share them with all the other participants out in cyberspace by adding the hashtag #FMSphotoaday. (If you don't know what a hashtag is, go here)

I am quite proud of myself for keeping up with it since March. I haven't missed a day (I might have had to go back and make up one the next day a couple times), and I have a picture for every day for the past seven months so far.

I'm not a great photographer or anything, and I know some of mine are better than others, but I have so much fun doing it!

And, it makes me be somewhat creative every day.

And I'm excited to get them all printed after I complete a whole year.

Like, "My Year in Pictures," or something clever. I don't know.

Heck, I might even keep up with it again. I'm kind of addicted to it now. I love finding my picture for the day each day!

Feel free to join in! You can check out my photo-a-days in my Instagram feed over 
there. -->

the alternative to cable

Right after we got married, we decided not to splurge on things like, you know, internet and cable TV.

We didn't have any internet for a couple months. It was actually nice. And instead of cable, we had a digital antenna for local channels and like 500 movies because Aaron owns a lot of movies.

In August 2010, my parents bought me a new phone for a college graduation present. We paid for the data plan, and we added an internet hotspot for an extra $10 a month. Cheap internet, lousy internet mostly, but internet nonetheless.

That worked okay for awhile. We could use our laptops as long as I was home with my phone and it decided to work well. And we started paying for Netflix so we could stream instantly to our Wii. Very slowly, I might add.

After about six months, we had about as much of the hotspot as we could take though. We finally forked over the extra $20 a month to pay for reliable internet access and got rid of the hotspot on my phone.

That was a good move.

But, we didn't get cable TV. And we still don't have it.

I don't think there's anything wrong with having cable, but I'm really glad we don't. It would actually be quite a waste of money for us.

We only care about a handful of shows that come on the air. And we both hate watching sports.

So, we still have a digital antenna to watch Gordon Ramsey shows and a few others that we enjoy on local channels. We also bought an AppleTV a couple years ago that streams Netflix, Hulu Plus, iTunes, and other fun things. We have a ROKU box too. Which is a better deal than AppleTV, but I think the interface is more confusing. Also, if you have other Apple products, they can stream things to the AppleTV. I suppose if you do not have Apple products, a ROKU is a much better option.

Anyway, if you have been thinking about getting rid of cable, join our club! It's fun! I promise!

Although, I guess if you REALLY like sports, you're probably out of luck...sorry...